Many of us have goals we work hard to complete so we can mark them off our list each day; career minded people have different goals than a stay at home mom, a student has different goals each day than a retiree.

Some people aren’t just interested in fishing their goals for the day; they’re on a mission!

The Blues Brothers coined the phrase “We’re on a mission from God!” which has widely been accepted as a phrase people use when they are filled with incredible determination to see something accomplished, regardless of what it may take.

Are you on a mission in your life? What is driving you? What is the singularly most important goal in your life?

I only ask because when Jesus came to earth he came, as did the Blues Brothers, on a mission from God. In fact, he expresses in chapter six of the Gospel of John that while he was on earth he had no intention fulfilling his own desires or wishes, only the will of the Father.

Logic demands that we consider Jesus’ words, “a servant ism’t greater than his Master” (John 15:20) therefore if our Master determined in His heart to follow the will of His Father, shouldn’t we determine to follow in His steps and make His mission our mission?

Our mission and Jesus’ mission should look identical!

If Jesus was emphatic about us being a people who loved others….

I’m just suggesting that hate shouldn’t even have a seat in our mental dining table. If Jesus blatantly told us to make disciples of everyone we meet, I’m thinking that we should be much more prepared to love people, build a relationship with them and lead them to Jesus.

What might a goal list look like that makes Jesus’ mission OUR mission? Oddly normal, just your motivation for your actions will have changed.

Go to the work (get there early so I can build relationships)

Grab dinner at a fast food (Go inside so I can have a chance to chat with someone)

call Bob (develop that friendship – maybe lead him to Jesus)

Finish “Gotham” (so I can have something fun to break the ice with Larry who loves Gotham)

Our seemingly mundane and terribly normal activities are suddenly transformed into spectacular spiritual service when it is motivated out of love for Jesus and love for the people for whom He died; when His mission becomes our mission life explodes with purpose we’ve never experienced!

The Israelites were surrounded by the miraculous for 40 years; there was

the manna from Heaven, daily, enough to feed all the Israelites

the quail

the water from the rock

and the fact that there clothes NEVER wore out!

Can you imagine seeing the miraculous EVERY DAY in your life for 40 years! Sounds amazing right? The problem was that it became common-place for them. God providing for their needs became expected and eventually unappreciated.

They had tested God’s patience, they had tried Him, and found that He was faithful in that He would provide for them supernaturally, proving His faithfulness to them daily for 40 years! Over and over they experienced the faithfulness of God until it became mundane. God called it “hard-hearted” in verse 8.

Have you allowed for the miraculous in your life become common, mundane, and unappreciated? Perhaps it’s time to step away from your busy-ness, recognize what He’s been doing in your life, and tell Him that He is awesome! Be sure to tell others too, because your testimony could awake them from their hard-hearted attitude and bring them to a place of gratitude and praise!

What miracles are going on all around you right now? He’s a faithful God. He’s been tested, tried and proven!

Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.

The real question is, “Why?”. Why did they come to hear Him? Jesus’ message was a simple message of repentance, which I’m not sure if you know this or not, is not an attractive message with most people who are struggling in sin, or dead in their sins.

So why did they “often” come to hear Him?

As notorious as the sinners were for sinning, Jesus was a notoriously loving person. In fact, He is love. They were attracted to Him because He loved them more than their sins. He treated them better than the establishment of religion would ever dare to treat them.

He loved them unconditionally.

What would it look like for you to be attractive to sinners? Some automatically assume that to be attractive means to appeal to their senses or desires. Instead what if we appealed to the one common need every of human? Love.

What if we loved them as Christ loved them? In fact, they are the reason for the gospel! Just as you were once!

I challenge you to consider the way which you come across to agnostics, atheists, all unbelievers, those who believe differently than you.

The volcano issued its demand through billows of sulphurous clouds and spurts of fiery ash and rock; certainly the only way to appease the god was through sacrifice!

“If only this god would see how serious we are, how much we are willing to give, what we will deny ourselves in order to stay his hand from the wrath which will ensue should we do nothing!”

*enter stage left* the young, beautiful virgin, tied to a cot made of sticks.

The sacrifice is dropped, without regard, into the mouth of the monster.

Suddenly, the smoke stops.

The rumbling ceases.

As a voice, a cavernous sound, belches from the bowels of the volcano and releases a single syllable, “Nope.”

The villagers scream in terror as the rumbling begins anew, now with ten times the strength the smoke and fire erupt, driving those worshippers away from the mountain.

Back in the village, a scared native looks to the chief and demands,

“WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO APPEASE THIS GOD?!”

I’m certain that this is a scene from some movie somewhere (for any copyright infringements I apologize)! Aren’t you glad we don’t behave that way anymore? If we sacrificed a virgin every time there were a famine, blizzard, or tornado there would be a shortage of un-defiled young ladies for our virtuous men to seek!

Sadly, many Christians still hold to this logic in regards to their walk with God. They firmly believe that if they behave poorly by sinning or wrong thinking, God will love them less. Also, if they behave well, reading their Bibles, going to church frequently, somehow God will love them more.

This logic is flawed on SO many levels. How do we suppose that we are going to coerce God into loving us more than sending His Son to die for us while we were His enemies? How can we make Him love us more? For that matter… how can we make Him do anything?

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1 NKJV

I’ve got great news, as a believer and follower of Jesus, not only can you not make God love you more, but neither can you make God love you less!

This isn’t a license to sin (we will still receive temporal punishment for our sins) but it is a license to LIVE freely in the warmth of unconditional love. It motivates us to love other people, to live for God, and to worship with abandonment.

We aren’t very familiar with unconditional love, it’s a foreign concept to many of us because so many base their capacity to love others according to how they’re treated.

But NOT SO with God – He IS love – He doesn’t just love people – HE IS LOVE. When He says that nothing can separate you from Him, He means it.

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature”. Mark 16:15

The word “preach” comes from the greek word “kerusso” which means to herald, proclaim, or preach; this was usually done by an appointed official of the king’s court called the Kerux.

The job of the Kerux was to “proclaim” the king’s words to the people of the kingdom. If the king needed anything communicated to the people, he would use the Kerux to do so. Also, the Kerux was only to preach or proclaim what the king spoke – He wasn’t to put words in the king’s mouth or leave anything out. Simple job, really. Convey the king’s words to everyone that would listen.

Every believer has been appointed “Kerux” of the highest order! We are to proclaim the King’s words of hope, life, love, and repentance to all His kingdom. We aren’t to leave anything out or put words in His mouth. Simply, convey the King’s words to everyone that will listen.

Some people get all frustrated and nervous, but you don’t have to worry about what to say, the King will tell you everything; also, He sent a Helper for you to do your job! The Holy Spirit will tell you exactly how to communicate God’s great love and forgiveness to each person you encounter if you will listen for Him.

So you don’t have to be a klutz with the gospel, you’re a Kerux! Now go kerusso that good news!

Pirates, at least the fictional sort, have always been super cool. I’m not even sure I fully understand why they have been fascinating to us but there’s no denying, especially after the endless sequels of the Caribbean variety.

Just imagine, buried treasure on some remote island awaiting your return; it would be all that one could possibly spend their time thinking about. Those pirates certainly had rehearsed over and over in their minds where the treasure was; it had to be the most important thing in their life! Perhaps they often worried whether someone had found their treasure!

Which leads to today’s verse from Luke 12:34

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also“

Wherever we set our most prized possession is where we will find our hearts. Our hearts are drawn to what we prioritize, we can’t help it! There is ZERO separation between our thought life and our hearts. If you think that money is the priority of your life, your actions will demonstrate that money is the most important thing in life. Your heart is found in your treasure chest. If you think or believe that your family is the most important thing in your life, your actions will give your heart away, they will mark X on the treasure map of your life.

What’s buried on your treasure map?

The Bible has a treasure map and its directions are simple, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you”. Inside that treasure chest is close relationship with God.

I wonder, is your relationship with God in that treasure chest? Is loving people in that old box buried in the sand?

It’s ridiculous to measure the length of an object by using a spoon, especially if you have a measuring tape at your disposal; however, I believe that we often do this with our lives.

15 Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.” Luke 12:15 NLT

If you evaluated your time, where would you guess the majority of your time is spent? For most Americans, it’s spent either working so that we can accumulate more things or procuring the items for which we are working.

In all honesty, there’s nothing wrong with purchasing things or working so that we can purchase things; there is a problem when we only find our worth or feel like we establish our status in and through the things which we have purchased.

It’s like trying to measure the length of an object with a spoon – that’s is simply NOT how you measure length! Neither do we measure our lives by what we own.

So if we don’t measure using what we own, how do we measure our life? What is success?

The Bible makes it clear, repeatedly through scripture, that the highest goal of every believer is to “…love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Luke 10:27 NLT.

So the question for today; how well are you loving God and loving others? When you have your answer to that question, you have found the correct way to measure your life without using any spoons. 🙂

Certainly, you put at least a minimal amount of thought into the coordination of colors, weight of the fabric (based on the temperature outside, or the activities you might be participating in), and maybe even your mood.

As I was reading today, I came across this vere and it provoked some thinking I’d like to share with you;

12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Colossians 3:12 NLT

What are you wearing?

If you’ve been transformed by God’s grace and Jesus’ blood, He has some amazing things for you to wear! So, what have you been wearing?

It’s so sad to see children of God wearing clothes that this world has made for them, bitterness, anxiety, depression, and hatred when God has SO MUCH BETTER for them! These items He has for us to wear have the power to transform every situation around us. every person near us, and keep our hearts in beating to the rythmn of the Kingdom.

Tomorrow when you’re going through the process of getting dressed consider what you’re wearing and ask if it’s what God has set out for you.

I couldn’t tell you how many time I heard the phrase “Watch your mouth!” from my teachers and my parents, even my siblings, when I was young. It was used anytime I was being sassy or rude, maybe even for using foul language. I would never had been sarcastic and said, “I can’t watch my mouth, it’s physically impossible!” because I feared the repercussions! That would have been MOST unwise.

Really though, can you watch your mouth? No! Unless you use a mirror or camera there’s no way for you to watch your mouth!

I understand what is meant both by the idiom as well as the scripture, however I couldn’t think of much other than my childhood when I read this passage. Thankfully, we have so many other versions of the same text at our disposal these days; I looked at another version of the same verse.

Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity. Proverbs 21:23 NIV

Ahhh…. that makes so much more sense and I appreciate that it doesn’t take me back to my childhood either lol.

Guarding my mouth, guarding my tongue? I can do both of those things! I can literally imagine that action happening 🙂 (places hands over mouth tightly)

Beyond the guarding of the mouth and tongue there’s a promise about what happens when we do so; we keep ourselves out of trouble. Now that’s a promise I can live with!

Just this past Sunday, during our praise and prayer portion of the service, I said something which was VERY funny to me but was inappropriate for service. Nothing nasty or dirty, it just wasn’t in good form. Thankfully, we have a very understanding congregation who puts up with quite a few shenanigans from me! Can you imagine if that wouldn’t have been the case? What if that had been at work or with a new friend?

You know what? You can imagine. You can imagine because you have done it too.

In Luke 10 we read how Jesus commissioned 70 followers to go ahead of Him; He supplied them with instructions about hospitality and decorum in regards to how to deal with those who would house them and provide food for them, as well as what to do when they were rejected. In verse 9 we find the reason for the mission.

Heal the sick, and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you now.’ Luke 10:9 NLT

Truly, this wasn’t a new practice for those who had followed Jesus; practically everytime Jesus encountered someone He would address their physical need first then deal with the spiritual need.

As we continue reading the New Testament, we see the disciples and apostles followed this pattern as well – heal them then point to God.

In Luke 10, this is the model Jesus gave them to follow. Which gave me pause as I read this scripture today.

Is this the model I follow? Is there a model which I follow, or do I simply do my best to not be a mean person and hope for the best? Could it be that we’ve missed a very simple method of leading people to God? Heal and point.

When I was a pre-teen (before that term even existed lol) and while I was a teenager we would force Christian tracks on people and go door to door; oddly, I never questioned our techniques against scripture. I never though to ask, “Could someone show me where to find what we’re doing in the Bible?”, instead I assumed that this was the proven “new” method for reaching people.

Since then, my wife and I have found that relational evangelism (building a relationship with someone and sharing Jesus as you go) works so much better than those experiences I had in my early years.

However, as I’m typing this I’m imagining what kind of results I could expect to see if I allowed Holy Spirit to guide me, if I would be a conduit for God’s healing, and then point them to the Kingdom of God. Scripturally speaking, I can only assume that I would see an overwhelming increase in people following God, which is ultimately the goal of every believer, in theory.

I’m certain that some could argue that Jesus didn’t speak directly to us and tell us to do the same thing as these followers in Luke 10 but I do find something that describes what followers of Jesus should look like in the book of Mark;

“These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new tongues. They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.” Mark 16:17-18 NLT

Did you see it? Right at the end of all those other amazing things which believers should be seen doing are these words, “They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.” Pretty interesting, right?

I think this could be classified under the category of “Expectations Jesus Has of His Followers”.

In conclusion, if we are to use the model given in our text for today we should constantly be on the lookout for those who are in need of healing and resting in God’s ability to use us to heal them so that they may know Him.